Best Of Belfast: Northern Ireland's #1 Interview Podcast
Northern Ireland has a better story to tell — one that goes beyond bombs, bullets and a sunken ship. You are part of this story. With 300+ conversations featuring some of the incredible people who call this place home, our weekly show gives you the chance to get away from the clickbait and connect with the amazing things happening in Belfast. Previous guests include NASA Scientists, Billion-Dollar CEOs, 91-year-old park-runners, Oscar-winning directors, Olympic Gold medalists, Bitcoin Auctioneers, Tim Burton's puppet-maker and a guy who built an aeroplane in his garage. Well-known voices include Snow Patrol, Foy Vance, Julian Simmons, May McFettridge, Zoe Salmon, Andrew Trimble, The Dead Rabbit, Michael Deane, The Priests, Two Door Cinema Club, Oliver Jeffers, Pete Snodden, Colin Geddis, Mary Peters, Rebecca McKinney and May Blood — the millworker who became a peer in the House Of Lords. Check it out! https://bestofbelfast.org/
Episodes
Rory King is the owner of Rory’s Travel Club.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Leaving Northern Ireland to work in Fiji
- Starting his travel club in an Indian restaurant in Brooklyn
- Scaling to 100,000 customers
- Running a business where “everyone wins”
- And his plan to grow to 1 million customers
Check it out.
https://bestofbelfast.org/stories/rory-king-rorys-travel-club
Join Rory’s Travel Club Here: https://rorystrave...
Lucy Briggs is a world traveller whose career spans across Government, Academia and Royalty.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Her love of collecting things
- Where she got her desire to travel from
- Why Gen-Z's career path will look different than their parents
- How a StudyUSA experience ended up taking her around the world
- Landing a job with the Royal Family
- And advice she'd give to her 18-year-old self.
Check ...
Caroline McKenna is an Executive Coach who works with some of the most successful people in Northern Ireland.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Why hard work doesn't always work
- Working on the business vs in the business
- Why self-care if one of the highest leverage activities you can engage in
- How to take time off without thinking about work
- And a live coaching session with Matt
Check it out.https://bestofbelfa...
Ciaran May is the founder of Natural Resilience, a lover of nature and a proud father.
In this episode, we talk about:
- The baggage Northern Irish men are unpacking from their dads/grandas
- Joining the police as a young lad from West Belfast
- Taking “the armour off” for the first time
- The rock bottom moment that changed his life forever
- And breaking limiting beliefs around business/money
Check it out.
https://bestof...
Tom Griffiths is a Sunday Times Top 100 Entrepreneur & Disruptor who is currently launching a revolution with https://www.nightlenses.com
In this episode, we talk about:
- Getting Richard Branson naked
- Digitally selling fish in buckets before they come to shore
- Breaking the “crabs in a barrel” mentality
- 10-second courage
- The power of taking action
- And advice he’d give to an 18-year-old self
Check it out!
http...
Willetta Gabriel is the founder of Bethel’s Kitchen: an artisan bagel and pickle business in Dromore, County Down.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Launching an extremely niche product in a rural town
- Why every single bagel tastes different
- (Depending on who rolled it)
- How one social media post saved her whole business
- And her experience living in Northern Ireland for the last 20+ years.
Check it out!
https://bestof...
Mark Marais is an entrepreneur from Zimbabwe with deep roots in Belfast.
He’s the founder of the luxury travel business Africa Golf Safari and co-founder of the Sport Changes Life Foundation.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Growing up on an idyllic African farm during the war
- How sport helped with racial integration in his school
- What Donald Draper can teach us about nostalgia
- The difference between space and place
- Sta...
Tony Novosel MBE is a former motor mechanic, steelworker, and semi-retired academic from Pittsburgh who has dedicated his life to serving Northern Ireland.
In this episode, we talk about:
How the collapse of the steel industry was the best thing that ever happened to him
Why he first decided to visit Northern Ireland 50 years ago
(And why he's been 85+ times since!)
Acting as "the American uncle” for NI stude...
Graham Robinson is an Artist and Director with over 15 years of experience working with household names like Netflix, Universal Music Group, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Dua Lipa and the BBC.
In this episode, we talk about:
- How the creative journey is made up of incremental steps rather than huge Hollywood moments
- Discovering his art form at a young age
- The role of the artist in society
- Balancing virtual worlds with the "rea...
Alan Mahon is the Belfast-born Founder and CEO of Brewgooder, an impact beer brand, B Corp, and the fastest-growing independent UK beer brand of 2023.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Meeting George Clooney & Leonardo Dicaprio
- Leaving his "three mums” behind to move to Scotland
- The tension between doing good and making money
- How getting a parasite in Nepal led to him starting his business
- The power of pub culture ...
Marty Neill is the founder of AirPOS. He’s also an ex-music journalist and avid retro gamer.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Leaving school illegally at 15-years-old
- Building and selling video games as a kid on his Spectrum + 2
- How all the best things in his life have come from “tiny rooms”
- Why you should never fall in love with your business
- Ideas being the “real currency”
- How COVID both destroyed and transformed his ...
Máirtín Ó Muilleoir is the publisher of the Andersonstown News in Belfast and the Irish Echo in New York.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Why he has a blackbird on his business card
- How he was able to buy a business with no money
- The future of the newspaper industry
- Growing up in Andytown during the sixties
- Challenges facing the media sector
- The symbiotic relationship between Ireland/America
- Life lessons from a Bud...
Patrick Treacy is a pioneer in Aesthetic Medicine. Throughout his incredible career, he’s won countless awards, trained thousands of doctors and trail-blazed new protocols used around the world today.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Smuggling cars across the German border to pay for med school
- Being arrested in Iraq under suspected espionage
- How being from Ireland quite literally saved his life
- His phone call with Nelson...
Peter Hannan is a Meat Merchant who supplies 400+ restaurants throughout Ireland, the UK and Europe, including some of the biggest names in the industry.
In this episode, we talk about:
- How he started out in the meat business
- (Aka, butchering lambs for his mum's mate's freezer as a boy)
- Moving to America at 19-years-old to learn from the masters of his industry
- Becoming the highest-paid executive in Ireland by th...
Iain Percy is the founder of Artemis Technologies and a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist.
In this episode, we talk about:
- How he fell in love with the water
- His work with professional sailing teams around the world
- Building the world's first electric workboat and electric passenger ferry
- The pros/cons of bringing an Olympic mindset to business
- Limiting time vs limiting the scope of projects
- Why he decided to base t...
Alan Weir is a top leader at Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK.
In today's episode, we talk about:
- His first job in Belfast Zoo Amusement park as a kid
- Working in a seatbelt factory
- Leaving home
- Managing a team of 40 English men in his early-twenties
- (And the leadership lessons he learned as a result)
- The powerful culture Toyota have created
- Experiencing Japan for the first time
- How a car comes of the line every 86...
Ross Lazaroo-Hood is the CEO of Clearer Water: “a social-impact company” based in Larne.
He's also the founder of Landmark Insurance Group and cofounder of the RUSA Foundation Charity.
In today's episode, we talk about:
- Where his name comes from
- Growing up in an estate in Larne
- Getting the freedom of the city award in London
- How his start-up didn't make any money for 18 months
- Merging his business and perso...
Jonny Hanson is a conservationist, agriculturalist, and entrepreneur.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Spending his summer holidays working with wild animals.
- Pursuing a PhD in Snow Leopard Conservation.
- The shift in the conservation industry from a "Western" to a "local" approach.
- Living in both Malawi and Monaghan during his childhood.
- The impact this had on his personal identity.
- Establishing Norther...
Lisa McFarland is Northern Ireland’s leading relationship coach.
In today’s episode, we talk about:
- Why there’s a taboo about getting help with your relationship
- (Versus hiring a PT, mechanic etc)
- The importance of talking to your male partner shoulder-to-shoulder
- Why 96% of her followers on Instagram are women
- A simple framework for checking in with your partner each week
- How our childhoods impact the way we give an...
Peter Chambers is the Headteacher at Holywood Steiner School, an alternative to mainstream education that’s making a powerful impact on the lives of pupils and teachers alike.
In today's episode, we talk about:
- How the school has doubled in budget, size and staff since 2020
- Why most people aren't aware of alternative education in Northern Ireland
- The power of delaying "sitting at a desk” until 6-years-old
- Te...
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